Long ball stats?

[Redlife]

We're proabably more direct, one dimensional and defensive now than we ever were under Houllier.

I don't think that's true. Houllier had one plan: knock it up to Mickey in the mixer and hopefully we'd score.



With Rafa there are long balls, short passing, and not just lot more crosses, but also clearly an emphasis on making them count.


Rafa clearly isn't adverse to playing certain kind of balls against certain teams. Part of his preparation goes into working out what will hurt particular teams most. As the cliche goes, it's about the right ball, not long or short.

[Shaggy]

I don't think that's true. Houllier had one plan: knock it up to Mickey in the mixer and hopefully we'd score.



With Rafa there are long balls, short passing, and not just lot more crosses, but also clearly an emphasis on making them count.


Rafa clearly isn't adverse to playing certain kind of balls against certain teams. Part of his preparation goes into working out what will hurt particular teams most. As the cliche goes, it's about the right ball, not long or short.

[kopdan]

where did i say direct was long ball?

[kopdan]

Liverpool bore me rigid at times i'll be honest

[Shaggy]

where did i say direct was long ball?

Nowhere, but how is our patient, possession-based football direct?

[kopdan]

I tink we have a habit of bypassing the midfield in favour of getting the ball to Crouch or Kuyt.

We had the same problem with El Moro.

We dont really seem to have much creativity in the middle.

When it works, it works well

When it doesnt, we look like a third rate team ala Bolton, Blackburn

[James]

I would say we are far ahead of Bolton/Blackburn....but we are also a long way behind United/Chelsea/Arsenal.

Some of the football Arsenal play is superb, as are United.

What we are is very hard to beat and resiliant......a lot of that comes down to lack of finances to compete for the best players.

Look how much the other 3 have spent on Henry, Drogba, Rooney, Ronaldo, Robben, Ballack, Reyes, etc.

Some of it does come down to some poor signings as well......we are after all still paying off debt from Houlliers reign - debt which I firmly believe could have been paid off if the club had gotten it's act together after 2005.

[tomasjj]

Nowhere, but how is our patient, possession-based football direct?

its a little bit of both... peace out....

[tomasjj]

I tink we have a habit of bypassing the midfield in favour of getting the ball to Crouch or Kuyt.

We had the same problem with El Moro.

We dont really seem to have much creativity in the middle.

When it works, it works well

When it doesnt, we look like a third rate team ala Bolton, Blackburn

I think we mainly do that to move the team up the pitch, then we start playing more possession oriented in the opposing half.

[Shaggy]

I tink we have a habit of bypassing the midfield in favour of getting the ball to Crouch or Kuyt.

We had the same problem with El Moro.

We dont really seem to have much creativity in the middle.

When it works, it works well

When it doesnt, we look like a third rate team ala Bolton, Blackburn

Exactly. I said the same. "When we're bad we're horrid but when we're good very few teams can live with us"...

"It works" quite often, certainly more often than "it doesn't". Therefore I'd say our brand of football is clearly better than the likes of Bolton & Blackburn.

[Helios Creed]

I don't think that's true. Houllier had one plan: knock it up to Mickey in the mixer and hopefully we'd score.



With Rafa there are long balls, short passing, and not just lot more crosses, but also clearly an emphasis on making them count.


Rafa clearly isn't adverse to playing certain kind of balls against certain teams. Part of his preparation goes into working out what will hurt particular teams most. As the cliche goes, it's about the right ball, not long or short.

And now we can actually pass the ball around without putting ourselves under pressure and ending up back at the goalie. We are technically a million times better than 3 years ago. Different league.

[Red_Polo]

When we use the long ball it tends to be for territory gain before we set up an attack, as opposed to the long ball being part of the final attacking move itself. So we're not a 'long ball team'. Having said that anyone will tell you when we run out of ideas and teams sit back on us, the long ball is something that we use far too much. Wouldn't bother with stats, the number of long balls played per game is a fairly poor indicator of the brand of football a team plays.

[lfcruleus]

I think we vary our style of play depending on the opposition, yes sometimes we play it long, sometimes we play counter attack but most of the time we try to retain possession and make the opposition work so we can create spaces down the flanks, Rafa looks at each opponent and decides how to play based on thier weaknesses. We do play deep and cut out the midfield at times against sides who can keep the ball, makes sense really. But this season especially at home Agger in particular has brought the ball out from the back as much as any CB in the league.
We are only negative when the opposition is capable of being better than us, ie against Barca, UTD and Chelsea, this is just Rafa preventing the opposition playing to thier strengths.

[kopdan]

Exactly. I said the same. "When we're bad we're horrid but when we're good very few teams can live with us"...

"It works" quite often, certainly more often than "it doesn't". Therefore I'd say our brand of football is clearly better than the likes of Bolton & Blackburn.

so you agree we play direct then

well done

[Shaggy]

so you agree we play direct then

well done